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Hal Halverstadt
Hal Halverstadt (alias "Harve") was a music executive, producer and author best known for his role as the director of merchandising for Warner Bros. Records in the 1960s and early 1970s. He was described in a 1972 Warner/Reprise advert as being the man who "makes sure no album gets released".Billboard Magazine, 29th April 1972, via Google Books He is also known for his correspondence with (as well as his inadvertent role in naming) The Residents, after he rejected their demo tape The Warner Bros. Album in 1971. His correspondence with the group continued occasionally for some years afterwards, and he contributed a letter to Uncle Willie's book Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents ''in 1993. Career " to Halverstadt, 1971]] Hal Halverstadt began working for Warner Bros. Records in Burbank, California around the mid 1950s, and by the mid 1960s was director of merchandising. He contributed liner notes to a number of releases in the mid 1960s to early 1970s, including ''Pata Pata by Miriam Makemba, Psycle by The Happenings, and Cycles by Frank Sinatra. Halverstadt was instrumental in signing Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band to Reprise in the late 1960s. He was also responsible for Warner's strong promotional campaign for Todd Rundgren in 1972. Halverstadt lost his job at Warner Bros. in the mid 1970s, as part of an "industry-wide purge". Association with The Residents Halverstadt came to the attention of the group who would later become The Residents in the late 1960s when he signed Captain Beefheart to the Warner Bros. subsidiary label Reprise Records. The group thought that if Halverstadt could appreciate Beefheart's complex and sometimes abrasive music, he might also enjoy the strange experimental recordings that the group had been making at home. The nameless group compiled a demo tape entitled The Warner Bros. Album in 1971 and sent it to Halverstadt in May of that year (followed in December of the same year by another tape, Baby Sex). Halverstadt was not overly impressed with the group's earnest efforts (describing The Warner Bros. Album as "okay at best"Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents), but graded them "AXPp" - A for Ariginality, X for Xecution, P for Presentation, and p for potential. Halverstadt had The Warner Bros. Album returned to its anonymous composers, addressed to "Residents, 167½ 17th Avenue, San Mateo, Calif." - which the group quickly adopted as their official nom de plume (first as "Residents, Uninc."), prior to their official debut release, the Santa Dog EP. The group would allude to their correspondence with Halverstadt in the liner notes for their debut album Meet The Residents in 1974, claiming jokingly that they had negotiated with him to release their early work on Warner Bros. Records, only for him to withdraw his offer due to a slump in record sales. Halverstadt would maintain written correspondence with Hardy Fox and The Residents for some years afterwards. Around 1992, Halverstadt wrote a letter (under the alias "Harve") to former UWEB fan club president Uncle Willie, who was compiling a biographical book covering the then twenty year history of The Residents entitled Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents. He closes the letter by telling Willie that "there better not be any of your weirdo fans showing up at my shop". Letters * [[The Warner Bros. Album#Reaction|Response to The Warner Bros. Album]] * [[Baby Sex#Hal Halverstadt|Response to Baby Sex]] * Letter to Uncle Willie See also * Warner Bros. Records * The Delta Nudes * The Warner Bros. Album * Baby Sex * Hardy Fox External links * Hal Halverstadt at Discogs * "Before the Beginning" at RZWeb Category:The Warner Bros. Album Category:The Delta Nudes Category:Baby Sex Category:Collaborators Category:Uncle Willie's Highly Opinionated Guide To The Residents Category:Warner Bros. Records